Cedar Grove's Alex Townsend tosses the ball back to the infield after making a play in center field in Glen Ridge June 17.

Since falling to Belleville 12-1 the Panthers have gone 6-1-1 as of Tuesday, including handing previously undefeated Valisburg its first loss of the season Monday.

It was a 1-0 win for Cedar Grove, with rising junior Mike Matarazzo pitching his second complete-game shutout in a row. The Panther pitcher also shut down Verona in a 1-0 win June 18.

Cedar Grove pushed across the winning run in the sixth inning of Monday's game, when a two-out hit from Tom Greatorex scored Chris Werndly.

"He throws strikes and I guess we've been making plays," Head Coach Michael Valenzano said about Matarazzo's effort on the mound.

The coach said the outfield has been coming up with lots of assists, a play that may go unnoticed in the box score.

The hot streak, which includes two wins over rival Verona, has come as a result of Valenzano figuring out where to best put his players in the lineup.

"I think once we finally got our feet wet I think they're starting to mesh as a team," he said. "It's definitely going better than I thought it might."

While earlier in the season the coach said the main point of summer baseball is to improve rather than win, now that Cedar Grove finds itself near the top of the standings almost halfway through the season, that goal may slightly change.

The Panthers are 6-3-1 on the year, good enough for fifth place in the league and potentially a spot in the playoffs.

Cedar Grove could easily move up those standings too, as the Panthers face Livingston and Bloomfield - the two teams ahead of them - in the coming days.

"At that point you want to make sure you get more emotional about this," Valenzano said.

The coach said almost all of Cedar Grove's games have been either quick defensive battles that end in 90 minutes, or hit parades that last three hours.

In both cases a single run may prove the difference, as it has in Cedar Grove's four most-recent wins.

"I tell them a lot, 'You got to manufacture a run, because one, two runs could do it,'" the coach said. "And that's proven true already."